Monday, October 20, 2008

A press preview for “My Wife Got Married” at Yongsan CGV in Seoul on Wednesday created plenty of buzz, not least because of Son Ye-jin, who plays a woman who breaks the established social framework by marrying two men simultaneously to seek genuine love and happiness.

In a press conference afterwards, Son said, “I think she is a rare character given that she pursues free love. If I hadn’t loved and cared for the character, it would seem unforgivable.”

The film adds a new dynamic to the novel on which it is based. Viewers are drawn deep inside the story, losing their sense of what is right and wrong by conventional standards. The work embraces football as a subject matter like the original novel, where it serves as an important metaphor for love and life.

“In the film it also plays an important role in bringing the main characters together in their first meeting and developing their feelings into love,” Son says. She calls it “a romantic melodrama that will appeal to the taste of young, laid-back people.”

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Ex-cop pimp Jung-ho is irritated because his girls keep disappearing without clearing their debts. One night, he gets a call from a customer and sends Mi-jin. Jung-ho realizes the phone number of the customer matches that of the calls the missing girls got last. As something smells fishy, he searches for her. During his search, Jung-ho dents a car in the alley. When Jung-ho spots blood splattered on the driver’s shirt, he senses the man, Young-min, is the suspect. After an intense chase, Jung-ho catches Young-min. But because of Jung-ho’s pretense as a cop, they are both taken to the police station. At the station, the man bluntly confesses he has killed the missing women, and the last girl, Mi-jin, may still be alive. As the whole police force is obsessed with a random search for corpses, Jung-ho is the only onewho believes Mi-jin is still alive. With only 12 hours left to detain the serial killer without a warrant, Jung-ho’s hunt begins, searching for Mi-jin entrapped in a place nobody knows.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Director Park Chan-wook’s acclaimed film “Old Boy” was cited one of the 500 greatest movies of all time compiled by the British film journal Empire. Among the illustrious list that includes “The Godfather,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “Empire Strikes Back,” Park’s “Old Boy” came in 64th place in the list.

Empire polled 150 film directors, 50 critics and more than 10,000 members of the public for the top 500 picks. The only Korean film to make the list, “Old Boy” was applauded for tenaciously probing the lure of revenge and its futility. The most memorable scene in the award-winning thriller was when the main character played by famed actor Choi Min-shik ate a live octopus.

On the whole, the 500 greatest movies list leans on the pop culture side. The perennial number one, Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” ended up in the 28th place, while such commercial films as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or “Jaws” were placed in the top 10. In spite of some questionable rankings, Empire’s 500 list is rated as a good source of recommendations and for discovering the classics as well as some really good films made outside the U.S.